The Man On Reach
by mitchthepug
Summary: I was very taken by the concept of Halo 3: ODST, so I've begun to write a similar book based off of the same concept, but set on Reach and involving some well know characters. PLEASE NOTE, I HAVE AN EXPLANATION FOR EVERYTHING, it just hasn't been transcribed yet. Rated M because it's based off of a video game that's rated M. Please review. Look for info on updates in the reviews.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**Deployment + 86:10:04 (ODST Jason Smiths' Mission Clock) / Unknown Building, Surface of Reach**

The room had only three pieces of furniture, a large comfortable bed in the corner, a heavy antique table made of solid wood that sat by the door, and the solid wood antique chair to match it. Lance Corporal Jason Smiths was the only man in the building. The ODST was sitting on the bed, leaning against the headboard. It was nearly time for him to call it quits and rest for the night, and he could feel the need for sleep aching inside of him. _I have to sleep, there's nothing more that I can do today. I've already done everything I can to make sure I can hold out until Evac arrives. _

He rose from the bed and crossed to the door, checking to make sure that the deadbolt was securely locked. He then lifted his M90 CAWS 8 gauge Shotgun off the desk, slinging it across his back before slowly sliding what was easily a two hundred pound desk in front of the door. Once he had accomplished his task, he pulled the chain on the dim light that was powered by the car battery he had found while he was out scavenging, ridding the room of the dim glow that it had had before.

He chinned a switch in his helmet, turning on the tactical light on the side of his head. He turned to the bed, unslinging his Shotgun as he approached it. He rested it against the wall with his M7S SMG and his tactical pack, which both sat next to the bed. Once they were propped up against the wall, he removed his helmet and switched it to sentry mode so that it'd wake him if it detected anything.

Removing his helmet also deactivated the experimental energy shield that had previously surrounded him. It was a spinoff of the hugely effective energy shield that the Spartans had. In addition, the new and experimental ODST armor was powered by generators that were powered by movement. So as long as he was moving, the suit was recharging the built in high capacity battery that powered his shields. Despite all the new tech in his suit though, the Spartans super soldier armor could still take a hundred times more punishment than theirs could.

Once Jason had set his helmet, he climbed into bed with the rest of his armor and his boots still on. He proceeded to drift towards sleep; comfortable in the knowledge that his large combat knife was still strapped upside down beneath his right arm and the standard issue M6C SOCOM Pistol was still on his thigh.

As he was about to finally close his eyes and rest, Smiths heard a creak from elsewhere in the building that he was currently trying in vain to fall asleep in. _That's the building settling for the night; it is quite old after all. _He reasoned with himself. _Or it could not be that. _

This last thought compelled him to put sleeping off until later, and get back up now. He uncovered himself, throwing the blankets to the side. As Jason stood, he quietly picked his helmet up off of his pack, switching it from sentry to the HUD as he donned it. He decided to forgo turning on the helmet's light for now, instead choosing to use his helmet's night vision capabilities to navigate around the room. He picked up his pack, silently attaching it to the clasps that made it an extension of his armor.

Once the bag was securely fastened, Jason reached down and retrieved his silenced SMG, firmly affixing it to his back and attaching its safety strap before picking up his shotgun and attaching its strap as well. Only then did he reach upward and grasp the chain that would turn on the dim light, switching off his night vision as soon as he had grasped it.

As he pulled the chain, he heard another creak, this time just outside his door. Already, he was glad that he had decided to get back up after the first creak, and not after this one. His HUD was showing six tightly packed red dots on the other side of the door. If he were just getting up now, it would have been too late. He knew that some of the light from the bulb in the ceiling was shining underneath the door, but that didn't matter anymore. They had known that he was there as soon as they had set foot inside the building.

Jackals were ruthless killers. Once they overlapped their shields, they became a nearly unstoppable force to a regular marine, and a fairly challenging group of opponents to a well armed and rested Orbital Drop Shock Trooper like himself. Unfortunately, Jason was only decently armed, and severely lacking in sleep. Fortunately for him, he had plenty of experience in dealing with Jackals in the field, and knew that they didn't switch on their shields until they could actually see a threat, because the shields could only run for a short time before having to be switched off to regenerate lost power. And at night, the light given off by the plasma barrier played hell with the night vision of everyone that could see it.

Smiths quickly made up his mind and swapped weapons, affixing his Shotgun to his back and retrieving his SMG, ensuring that the silencer was securely fastened and checking to make sure that all the gun's stats matched what was displayed in his visor.

Jason crossed the room so that he was directly across from the door, noting that his mission camera was still rolling, and would be for several more weeks until it ran out of allotted storage space. He raised his SMG, pointing it at the center of the door, roughly at a Jackal's chest height.

"One, Two, Three, Four..."He stopped counting out loud, his helmet recognizing the voice command and bringing up a small stopwatch in the corner of his helmets screen.

The bastards were grouped up and approaching the door slowly; even better, the distinctive shimmer that indicated a plasma shield was turned on wasn't present on his radar. _Thank god for new tech, _Smiths thought as he watched the blobs on the radar get closer and closer together and knowing that he only had one chance to do this right.

_Twenty Eight, Twenty Nine, Thirty... _Jason Smiths squeezed the trigger and fanned his gun across the door, making sure to spray a wide enough area so as to hit all six of the targets evenly. Three point Two seconds later, the last 5x23 mm Caseless Full Metal Jacket round in the magazine exited the barrel, succeeded in tearing off what was left of the top half of the door, and flattened harmlessly against the nearly undetectable energy shield of one of the six Special Operations Elites standing in the hallway outside Jason's room.

Jason had had a great deal of training when it came to the Sangheili warrior caste system, and so upon seeing his true targets, promptly calculated the positives and negatives of his situation.

The Elite in the forefront of the group held a plasma rifle, as did the two flanking him on either side. The one directly behind the leader held a plasma carbine and had a beam rifle strapped to his back. The other two held what looked like heavier versions of the plasma pistol, likely designed to be used in nearly any combat situation, and both had Fuel Rod Cannons on their backs. All six carried unlit plasma swords on their hips, ready to be pulled and cut him in half at a seconds notice.

_I could swap weapons, I might even be able to kill two or three of these bastards if I sidestep and use the Shotgun point blank. _This was sounding more and more like a good idea to him, but for some reason, he still felt unsure about his plan. _Probably because it's suicide, and that's not what I signed up for when I enlisted._

Jason Smiths made up his mind. He pivoted on the balls of his feet, turning to the window. At the same time, he dropped his SMG, letting the strap do its job and halt his gun's fall before it hit the ground. As he began to sprint for the three foot by four foot window, Jason pulled his Pistol out, taking aim at the reinforced window and hoping that the non-standard Semi-Armor Piercing Explosive rounds would be able to shatter the inch thick glass before he got there.

It took him a total of two seconds to reach the window, by which time Jason was able to fire seven rounds from his pistol. This had the desired effect of completely shattering the supposedly shatterproof window and allowing him to jump out of it just as the six Special Operations Sangheili were entering the room and turning towards him.

As he fell, Jason tried to aim for a burned out car that he hoped would break his fall. He hit it and rolled off, thankful that the metal hood had crumpled and absorbed some of the energy. He heard yelling from above him, but he didn't look up.

The Elites had made it to the window. _They probably let the sniper go first so he could shoot me if I survived the landing. _This thought got Jason up from where he had been bent over on his hands and knees and encouraged him to start running.

As Jason sprinted towards an alleyway across the street, bright green bolts of plasma started to rain down around him, solidifying his theory that the sniper would be allowed to get to the window first. Several of them hit, almost completely draining his shields before he was halfway to the alley. The shots stopped, and Jason made the assumption that the Elite standing in the widow was reloading, which would give him the time he needed to get to the alleyway and escape them for a few minutes or so.

He was wrong. Half a step before he reached the safety of the alley, a bright blue beam of plasma impacted Jason Smiths' left shoulder. It smashed its way through the rest of his shields and punched a neat half inch wide hole through his armor, muscle, bone, muscle, and finally armor again before melting a hole in the concrete to Jason's left, having cauterized everything that it touched in his shoulder.

Jason screamed and fell, clutching his shoulder as he tumbled into the safety of the alley, crawling roughly twenty feet in to ensure that he could no longer be seen. As he lay out of the sniper's line of fire, Jason tried to figure out what to do. _I can't stay here… but it's kinda nice here… it's dark and I'm tired. I could just sleep_. Jason started drifting off, the wound in his shoulder hurting less and less with each passing second that he laid there.

Jason heard six loud thumps from back in the direction of the room that he had resided in for a few hours. _That was probably the Elites jumping down from the window. They're probably hunting me, trying to kill all the rest of the people that'll oppose them; so basically everyone. _But Jason Smiths found that he was caring less and less about them as he drifted off.

As Jason slowly closed his eyes he could see the six Elites round the corner and move towards him. He didn't care, they were twenty feet away, and he would be asleep by the time they reached him. They closed to fifteen feet.

Two giant figures emerged from the shadows immediately to his right. As the one in the lead stepped over his outstretched legs, he saw what they were. Both Spartans had Assault Rifles on their backs and Pistols on their thighs. The one in the lead carried a Sniper Rifle, but Jason was too tired to be able to tell what model it was. He leveled it at the Six Elites, who roared and angled towards these new, worthier opponents.

The two Spartans were tagged in Jason's HUD. The one with the Sniper was labeled as S-005; the one behind him was S-137. The latter crouched over Jason, shielding him from a stray plasma bolt that had been directed at S-005. The Spartan squatting above him pulled a stim form one of its armor's compartments, injecting it into Jason's thigh.

Almost immediately, Jason felt himself becoming more alert. His vision was restored just in time to watch all six Elites open fire on S-005. Jason could see the shimmer as the Spartan's shields absorbed and dissipated as much of the plasma as they could, but they were draining quickly. While the Elites continued to fire, the Spartan's Sniper Rifle cracked four times in rapid succession, the last round exiting the barrel before the shell casing from the first had made it to the ground.

Four shots had been fired, and all four found their mark. Four of the six Elites now lay on the ground, all four missing huge chunks of their heads. But now the Spartan would have to reload, and it was obvious even to Jason that he wasn't going to make it. The Elites had completely drained S-005's shields, and the only thing that had saved him was that the two remaining elites had had to let their weapons cool down.

The Spartan crouching over Jason was spraying bio-foam in his wound, but he wasn't paying attention. He watched as the lead Spartan dropped his rifle and pulled an unnecessarily large looking knife from its sheath. He lunged with amazing speed, jumping clean over both of the Elite's heads and twisting so that he landed on his feet behind them, facing Jason.

The Spartan grasped the neck of the closest Elite and pulled him backwards, forcing his knife deep into his back, right where the shield didn't cover. The blade protruded out the front of the Elite, dripping with purple blood. The Special Operations Trooper died instantly, the Spartan's knife having pierced several vital internal organs.

By then, the last Elite left standing had turned towards where his comrade was skewered on the Spartan's knife and raised his weapon.

S-005 wasn't going to make it. The Elite's weapon was raised and the Spartan's only unoccupied weapon was on his back. But to reach it, he would have to drop the Elite he as using as a shield. He hesitated.

The Elite started firing, pouring as many plasma rounds down range as he could. S-005 ducked behind the Elite's corpse, but the plasma was beginning to burn its way through.

Jason's SMG was cradled in his lap, fully loaded and angled towards S-005 and the Elite. He steadied the weapon, making sure that the targeting reticule on his HUD was lined up with the middle of the Elite's back.

Jason squeezed the trigger, taking pride in his ability to hold the gun steady and ensure that nearly all osf the 5x23 mm Caseless Full Metal Jacket rounds found their way into the Elite's back, killing him before his plasma burned all the way through his dead ally. The Spartan withdrew his knife from the Elite's back and wiped it off on its armor before approaching Jason and S-137. Both registered as Petty Officer 2nd Class on his HUD, meaning that in a combat situation such as this one, they far outranked him.

Jason attempted to raise his right hand in a salute, but couldn't raise it high enough.

"On your feet soldier, we'll get you somewhere you can rest." S-005 said. "We're going to need all the help we can get."

Jason struggled to his feet with the help of the two juggernaughts, both gently pulling him to his feet before helping him work his way back towards the entrance to the alley.

They ruled out his old building almost immediately, since it had already been visited once, and likely would be again when the team didn't report in.

"They're working their way from North to South." S-005 said. "We're better off finding a building towards the North that they've already swept."

They found one such building within two miles and they deemed it a good place to rest up. S-137 quickly swept the small building for Covenant troops and, upon finding it empty, found a room with a bed. That's where they took Jason, laying him down on the bed to rest after they reapplied bio-foam and a bandage.

Jason didn't even try to refuse; he just removed the necessary armor components to make sure he didn't aggravate his wound, and slept.

He awoke roughly twelve hours later with a stabbing pain in his left shoulder. He was alone, the two Spartans that he vaguely remembered from the night before were nowhere to be seen.

As he stood up and looked around, Jason heard the sound of a bolt being cycled from down the hall. Relieved that he wasn't alone, Jason donned his helmet and as much of his armor as he could, and retrieved his weapons from where they were neatly laid out on the floor before setting off down the hallway on search of whomever made the noise he had heard.

He was still painfully aware of the hole in his shoulder, but tried not to let it slow him down too much as he swept through the small apartment. It didn't take Jason long to find the two Spartans. They had set up shop in the living room, laying out all of their various armaments in neat rows on the floor. As Jason approached his two companions, he started noticing things that he had missed the night before.

Firstly, Jason could tell which Spartan was which almost immediately. The Spartan that had done all the fighting the night before looked like he was in bad shape. Jason knew that the Spartan was male, because both Spartans had managed to take off all of their armor and laid it out on the floor. His armor was badly scratched and covered in what looked like plasma scoring.

The other Spartan was a female, and her armor looked far less damaged, though it appeared as if she was making repairs as well. She was tall. _But then again, _he thought, _they all are, it gives them an advantage in almost any fight_. She was attractive too, her short black hair was in sharp contrast to her almost unnaturally pale skin, but also drew his attention to her amazingly blue eyes. Amazing blue eyes that he now realized were staring at him.

Jason quickly looked away, fearing that she could somehow see through his black reflective visor and would know what he was thinking. So instead of looking over at her again, he studied the other Spartan. He had short brown hair, brown eyes, very pale skin, and was also unusually tall. It was only now that Jason noticed that both Spartan's rank and ID were displayed when he looked at them, and remembered that they both thoroughly outranked him.

He snapped to attention and saluted.

"At ease soldier," S-005 said. Jason relaxed, dropping his hand to his side and approaching the two Spartans.

"Orders sir?" Jason asked, hoping that it wasn't anything too strenuous because of the state his shoulder was in.

"For now, check your armor and see what repairs you can make, then clean your weapons. How's your shoulder feeling?"

Jason almost told them that it was fine so they weren't concerned, but that could prove dangerous if they thought he was fine in a fight. He could get them all killed if he lied.

"It hurts sir. I'm not at full fighting capacity."

"Good, I would have been worried if you said you were fine. That would make you a liar and a liability. Get to work on your weapons and armor, work as fast as you can, but be thorough."

"Yes sir." Jason said, unloading his weapons and laying them out on the floor.

Once Jason's weapons were laid out, he disassembled his armor and began making minor repairs, mostly consisting of tightening straps and locking plates in place. They sat there in silence as they cleaned their weapons and armor. At one point, Jason changed the bandages on his shoulder. The verbal silence was deafening, and after ten minutes, Jason felt like he had to speak up.

"We're going to be stuck together in this city for a while," he said. "We might as well learn each other's names."

"That's a fair point," S-137 said, she looked as S-005 and he nodded. She turned back to Jason. "I'm Carris."

"James," said the other Spartan.

"I'm Jason," he said. "So what's our plan?"

"The city is lost," Carris said. "But there's something here, something the Covenant wants."

"How do you know?" Jason asked.

"Because we're still alive," James said bitterly. "If there wasn't something here then the Covenant would have glassed the city a long time ago."

""Well what is it?" Jason asked.

"No idea," Carris said, "But that's our new mission. We have to stop the Covenant from claiming it as theirs. Comms are blocked, so we're on our own for now."

"How long do we have?"

"From the Covenant chatter that I've heard, they've already found it, and it's big. We have a week at most before they're able to take it and go." James said.

"Then we had better get to work," Jason said, grimly returning to the task of cleaning his shotgun. As he worked, he thought about what had happened to lead him to this twisted turn of events.


	2. Chapter 2

_Okay guys, i decided to split up chapter two into chapter two and chapter three since it was over twice as long as chapter one. so, here's chapter two, enjoy and review please!_

**Chapter 2**

**D + 00:03:37 (Sergeant Major Wyatt Mission Clock) / SOEIV, in combat drop to surface of Reach**

"One minute until impact." Sergeant Major Ainsley Wyatt said. As per protocol, he had been the first to launch. That way, when the rest of them landed, there would already be a commander to give orders.

Someone popped a disk into a slot in their pod and the ODST anthem began playing over the loudspeakers in all two hundred pods in the Company. The unauthorized usage of UNSC Comms systems during battle was strictly frowned upon. This, however, was routine for the Helljumpers, and it would have felt weird to not hear it playing as they made their dangerous descent to the warring planet below.

"Forty five seconds out," Wyatt said. He knew that his thrusters should be activating soon so that he could slow his descent. Otherwise he'd hit the ground at terminal velocity and his pod would dig itself into the ground. The rigid Titanium-A frame would keep the pod in one piece, but Ainsley would be killed instantly and painlessly on impact. If that happened, command would fall to the next highest ranked ODST that was dropping down with them.

_I suppose the operation wouldn't be a complete disaster, but the company would lose a lot of sensitive equipment, the AI, and their most senior ranked commander._

Still, it wasn't something that required his attention at the moment; only something to ponder occasionally, his pod still hadn't reached the stage that the thrusters should deploy at. He checked the clock again, seeing that there were still forty seconds left until impact and deployment, an eternity in drop time.

"How long until thruster deployment?" Ainsley Wyatt asked Wilhelm, the Company's AI that he has worked with on countless combat drops such as this one.

"Sir," Wilhelm replied. He spoke slowly and carefully, obviously not wanting to rush what he had to say. Despite being an AI, he sounded scared. "It appears as if the pod has stopped responding. There will be no thruster deployment. It has been a pleasure serving with you over the last three years." Wyatt was quiet for several seconds after this announcement.

"You too Wilhelm," Wyatt whispered slowly when he had regained the ability to speak.

Wyatt's timer said thirty three seconds until impact, but time had begun to slow for him.

"Thirty seconds," Wyatt said over the Company's Comms. His voiced was hushed. "My pod has decided that it's not going to work for me. It's been a pleasure serving with you."

Silence echoed through his pod. The anthem continued to play, but Wyatt ceased to hear it. The sounds of his pod rushing through Reach's atmosphere faded away from his attention, leaving him in silence.

"Sir, it's been a pleasure to serve with you," said one of the ODSTs in Wyatt's company. As soon as he finished speaking, the rest of the Helljumpers riding down with him began echoing heartfelt variants of this message.

Ainsley Wyatt knew that most men started screaming now, but that wasn't how he wanted to die. _I'm gonna die on my own damn terms. _He couldn't imagine it any other way.

He quickly pulled three heavy stims from a pouch on his thigh and injected them, causing instant euphoria. He then drew his pistol, pressing the muzzle to the bottom of his chin. His finger tightened on the trigger as he prepared to end his own life. But he never got the chance to. His pod smashed onto the street below, digging itself into the asphalt and ending the Sergeant Major's life before he could do it himself. Thankfully he was never aware of this, and died happily believing that he was going out on his own terms.

Jason Smiths pod was towards the middle of the pack, but with the assistance of the camera on the bottom of his Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle, and the monitor in front of him, he could see his commander's pod as it impacted into the ground.

His thrusters had activated, and his descent was slowed significantly, allowing him to hit the ground much less violently.

When Jason's pod landed, the front hatch slid up and over the top of the pod just like it was supposed to, and Jason wasted no time in unstrapping and grabbing his weapons. He slung his SRS99D-S2 AM Sniper Rifle on his back and grasped his Silenced SMG, making sure that he had as many magazines for both as he could carry.

"Smiths," Master Sergeant Spalding shouted at him.

"Yes sir," Jason replied, snapping to attention.

"I want you and Cohen on top of that three story building at the end of the street," he said, gesturing towards where the road dead-ended into an intersecting road.

"Roger Sir!" Jason said, saluting before placing his weapons back in the SOEIV and strapping himself back in. Once he was strapped in he pressed the hatch release, causing the front hatch to slide back down. He used the thrusters and the extra tank of fuel to guide himself back into the air and on top of the building he had been assigned to. His spotter, Cohen, landed a few seconds after he did.

Jason Smiths' 'spotter' was the same rank as he was, but it was understood that Jason was the one that took the lead. They'd been friends since their first days at the academy. They'd served together for years, even before they were accepted by the ODSTs.

Usually, the better shooter served as the spotter, due to the increased level of experience required for the task. But as Jason and his 'spotter', Alexander Cohen, were equals when it came to shooting, Jason had suggested early on that they swap out every now and then so that they were both just as good at spotting as they were at shooting.

"Who's spotting today?" Alex asked as he sauntered over to Jason, Rifle in hand.

"No one," Jason said. "This is going to be a target heavy operation. We're both shooting."

"Yes Sir!" Alex said jokingly. They often made fun of the fact that neither of them could ever manage to outrank the other.

"Just make sure to call out your targets so neither of us wastes a round!" Jason said as he slung his SMG on his back and grabbed extra boxes of ammunition for his Sniper Rifle.

The two friends took up positions next to each other on the rooftop, leaving about five feet of space between them to allow for a wider range of motion.

"Snipers in position sir!" Jason told Spalding through the Company's Comm frequency.

"Good! All right boys, the Covenant are two streets away, that gives us about five minutes to dig in and get ready. I want mines scattered on the streets and any open ground between us and them."

The ODSTs had done this countless times before, and didn't need any further instruction. They knew that they needed to get off the street as soon as possible. The covenant would likely have Wraiths and Ghosts; vehicles that were nearly impossible to take down when you were exposed on the street.

It took three minutes to lay out over one hundred LOTUS Anti-Tank and various Anti-Personnel mines on the street in the direction that the Covenant would be coming from. After that, the company dug in and waited.

The Covenant took longer than they had anticipated to arrive, but when they did they came in force. The first to arrive were the Grunts. Individually, they were nothing more than an annoyance, but the seventy five grunts that came running down the street provided a very serious threat. They also foreshadowed the battle that was to come.

"Don't waste your shots on Grunts unless you need to pick one off that's posing a serious threat. We don't want to give ourselves away too quickly." Jason said.

Just as he said that, a Grunt started sprinting towards where Sergeant Spalding was crouched down behind an abandoned car. The Grunt held a lit plasma grenade in each hand and Jason knew from personal experience that he was more than likely screaming as well. He saw that Sergeant Spalding hadn't seen this new threat, and knew that he had to act quickly to save what little command structure was left.

His scope and helmet told him that the Grunt was 40 meters away and that there was a stiff wind rolling up the street between where he was and where a Grunt was making the last attack of his life. He adjusted his aim accordingly and gently squeezed the trigger.

The 12.7 mm round caused the Grunt's head to explode, and completely severed the line to his methane tank. The grenades dropped to the ground where they stuck, causing their timers to begin counting down from three. When the two grenades detonated, the heat ignited the methane leaking out of the dead Grunt's broken methane pack. The resulting explosion killed three grunts, on top of an additional four that had been killed during the detonation of the grenades.

"Good shot," Alex remarked, "They know where we are."

"The shot was justified. They would have killed him."

"True. Think we should change locations?"

"No. Any Grunts that were able to tell where the shot came from died in the explosion."

"Good point. Looks like the Jackals are starting to show up. And where there are Jackals, there are inevitably snipers."

"Yeah," Jason said, "Keep your eyes out for anything posing a threat to us. I'll keep watch over the rest of the Company."

"Got it," Alex replied, shifting side to side to settle down further on the rooftop. "I'd say we have about three more shots before they figure out where we are."

"Then we had better make 'em count."

They both knew that as soon as the Covenant figured out where they were, it would be an all out battle for survival as every Covenant soldier down there tried to kill them as fast as possible. No one likes an enemy sniper; they're the most hated people on the battlefield.

They watched the battle rage below them between the Company of Helljumpers, the Jackals, and the very few grunts that had managed to keep themselves alive this long. For the most part, the ODSTs were winning. There were a few casualties here and there, but they were mostly due to the occasional plasma grenade that was thrown well enough to kill one of the very spread out Helljumpers.

When the Jackals had begun to pour out in the street, there were easily over a hundred of them. Now, there were still over seventy five, and it had been nearly twenty minutes of exchanging fire with them.

"Ordinance," Sergeant Spalding called out through the Company channel. "Arm Anti-Personnel mines one through twenty five."

When the street had been mined, the Explosive Ordinance squad had laid out twenty five LOTUS Anti-Tank mines and seventy five Anti-Personnel mines. They had left them all disarmed to avoid wasting them on Grunts like the Covenant higher-ups had intended for them to do.

Now, however, they armed a third of the seventy five Anti-Personnel mines that littered the battleground below. The street had been swarming with Jackals and littered with dead Grunts before the mines had detonated. Their shields had been used with scary efficiency, preventing the majority of the Helljumpers' shots from reaching their intended targets.

The twenty five mines that were armed were scattered evenly across what had previously been a highway with eight lanes of traffic before the invasion. When the mines were activated, they were all triggered nearly instantly. Each mine was made up of a proximity sensor, a blasting cap, a high explosive, and an outer shell that was designed to fracture into thousands of tiny pieces and get thrown upward and outward at several thousand kilometers an hour.

The shrapnel filled the air, shredding through the thick skin of the Jackals like a hot steak knife through butter. The dark purple blood of the Jackals and the bright blue blood of the dead grunts that littered the street filled the air in a slightly gross yet satisfying mist that was blown around in the slow wind drifting up the street, coating everything in sight. The beautiful purple and blue coating completely masked the horrors of the battlefield.

Silence descended over the street. Nothing moved, nothing twitched, and no one spoke. The street level ODSTs reloaded in near silence, the only noise was the sound of fresh magazines being quietly slid into weapons, no one wanting to disturb the blissful quiet.

"That," Alex whispered over the Company's open Comm channel, "Was beautiful."

The channel erupted into laughter as the post-battle adrenaline wore off, leaving them all giddy and calm. They laughed about it now, but if Jason didn't know that it was the bodies of a couple hundred Covenant soldiers that had created the appearance of this royal purple and neon blue highway, he would, without a doubt, have said that it was beautiful.

"Alright men, move out." Sergeant Spalding said, "Ordinance, recover the mines and distribute them. We'll want to keep as many as we can. Everybody refill your ammo in your pods. We're taking this city back street by street."

"Hell yeah!" several of the men on the ground yelled.

"It's about damn time we took this fight to the Covenant," Jason quietly remarked, receiving another wave of cheers.

The Helljumpers began stepping out on the street. The boys in Ordinance were collecting the remaining mines and passing them out. Within five minutes, the company was divided up into five platoons on the street and was preparing to push for the heart of the city.

Jason got up and started jogging back to his pod. The rooftop was large, and he wanted to make sure he had all the ammo that he could carry. Alex hadn't fired a shot yet, so he wouldn't need to go back for ammunition. He had left Alex there knowing that he would be watching over the Company while they readied themselves for deployment.

Jason Smiths reached his pod, roughly 100 meters from the edge of the rooftop. He retrieved what he needed and turned around to face Alex again, beginning the short jog back to the edge.

Alex saw them first, yelling out a warning to the Company. Who knew how long they had been there, waiting for the Helljumpers to let down their guard. They should have shown up on the motion sensors, but they weren't moving. Jason was amazed that Alex had even seen them, Jason switched to Alex's helmet cam and saw that they were covered in the same purple and blue war paint that everything else was.

"Wraiths!" Alex screamed again over the open Comm channel. He began to fire, the booming of his Sniper Rifle echoing up and down the street.

The wraiths fired back.

Jason wasn't even halfway to Alex yet, but he watched as at least a dozen Plasma Mortars sailed high into the air in perfect arcs. Though they were all going to different places, they all seemed to originate from a fairly central location.

Alex kept reloading and pumping rounds into the enemy tanks as fast as he could. Jason kept running towards him. It was still too early to be able to tell where the mortars were going to go, and Jason could only hope that the rest of the Company was taking cover and preparing for another firefight; this one short, but more intense than any that he could remember.

Jason made it to the edge of the roof and laid back down, propping up his rifle on the ledge and looking through the scope. What he saw scared him more than anything he had ever seen before.

Alex's helmet had only shown four wraiths, but now Jason saw that over a dozen lined the street, all heavily coated in purple and blue blood. Alex had already managed to disable three of the alien tanks, but Jason knew that they took a full magazine to stop, and that was only if you were a good enough shot to his the main operator.

When the Wraiths fired their first salvo of Plasma Mortars, the Helljumpers were still congregated on the street where the majority of the fighting had occurred. There were over a dozen men carrying M41 Rocket Launchers in the crowd, but there were too many people between them and the Wraiths for them to have a clear shot.

The first salvo caught the company out in the open. When the plasma struck, many of the mines that the Helljumpers had been carrying were detonated, shredding dozens of soldiers. Dozens more were vaporized instantly, others suffered horrible burns and wounds and died quickly, and the rest only suffered minor burns or instant amputations and tried to fight as best they could. Alex and Jason were the only two uninjured men in the whole Company, and they were the two inflicting the most damage to the giant alien vehicles.

Jason and Alex were pumping round after round downrange, destroying a wraith roughly every four shots. They had disabled seven so far, but there were still eight left, and soon they would figure out that the two snipers were the biggest threat that they faced.

The seven remaining Wraiths fired two more salvos in rapid succession, both still aimed at the street level survivors. They completely wiped them out, leaving only Alex and Jason alive out of the five platoons of highly trained soldiers that they had dropped down with. Below them laid a solid glass field composed of some of the best soldiers that the UNSC had to offer.

When the second to last wave of plasma had struck, the rest of the undetonated mines had been set off, shredding everything on the battleground into confetti sized chunks and making it that that much easier for the final salvo of Plasma Mortars to turn everything to glass.

"Jesus," Alex whispered from beside him. Both of their rifles were empty and required reloading, but neither of them did, instead lying there in shock and fear.

"We have to leave. Now," Jason said, making sure that a sense of urgency was clear in his voice.

"No, we should finish the job, kill every last one of the Covenant bastards that did this to our friends!" Alex protested, clearly wanting to do anything but leave. Jason remembered something that had been said to him years ago, but that he never believed that he would repeat until now.

"Run, run, run away; live to fight another day."

"What?" Alex asked, obviously confused. "How the hell can you say that? Those were our friends out there!"

The wraiths had stopped firing when the last of the ground based resistance had been killed, but now they seemed to remember that Alex and Jason were still there, and still posed a huge threat to them. There were only seven of the Covenant tanks left, but they fired one last salvo into the air; a salvo that was most definitely going to reduce Alex and Jason to a smooth spot of glass on the rooftop. Alex reloaded and started firing, taking out three more of the Wraiths in a matter of seconds.

"Get up and run you idiot!" Jason yelled. He sprang to his feet, holding his rifle in his hand. He grabbed Alex by the arm and dragged him to his feet. Both of them kept solid holds on their rifles, taking them with them along with the full stocks of ammunition that were still stored in their armor. They ran towards their pods, stopping when they reached then so that Jason could grab his M90 CAWS 8 Gauge Shotgun and two boxes of shells from his pod, swapping his Rifle for the Shotgun.

"Keep your Rifle, we may need it, but I foresee a lot of close quarters combat in our future." Jason said.

"Why did we run?!" Alex snapped at Jason. He had never used that tone with Jason before and it shocked him. His best friend had never been this angry at him in all the years that they had known each other.

"So we wouldn't be killed," Jason replied.

"We should have stayed and destroyed the Wraiths that killed the rest of our company!"

"Then go back and finish them off, but it's suicidal!" Jason retorted angrily. Alex turned on his heel and jogged back to the edge of the rooftop where they had been laying only moments before.

"They're gone." He whispered. His tone was a mixture of hurt and rage, as it he couldn't believe that Jason had saved his life.

"Good," Jason said, "If they think we're dead then they won't be looking for us. We'll have the element of surprise in any plan that we make."

Alex didn't say anything, he just walked back towards Jason, passing him and continuing on to the next rooftop.

"Where are you going?" Jason asked, "We need to stick together. We have to watch each other's backs!"

"I'm going to find and kill the four Elites that were driving those Wraiths. Don't follow me unless you're willing to help."

"That's suicide! Come back!" Jason yelled after him. Alex kept walking.

Jason watched his best friend walk away, leaving him by himself in the huge hostile city. He stood there for five minutes, thinking about what his next move should be. _I should find somewhere to stay the night. Wherever I find can act as a home base too. I'll need somewhere to fall back to._ He checked the status of his Comms. The short range was fully operational, but the long range channel was blocked, most likely jammed by the Covenant.

He made up his mind, deciding on a mission to keep him motivated. _I have to find and disable that jammer and radio in for extraction or reinforcements. _

He walked to the edge of the rooftop that overlooked the street, leaving his rifle in his drop pod. He had made numerous modifications to his Rifle to make it function as smoothly as it could. He had added a flash suppressing barrel with more rifling for increased accuracy. His scope had three settings instead of the standard two, in addition to the 4x and 8x zoom, he added a 16x zoom that greatly increased his effective range. His rifle had a stock that was hugely adjustable and was fitted for him, though that could be easily adjusted in the field as necessary.

As Jason attached a rope to the edge of the rooftop, he thought about going back for his rifle, but decided against it. The Shotgun and SMG would serve him better in the close to medium range combat of a city. He quickly rappelled down the building, landing with a thud on the slippery glass street that had once been his fellow ODSTs. The glass was mostly black with small patches of purple and blue, showing him what had once been a Helljumper and what was just melted street.

Jason walked to the middle of the deserted battleground and squatted down besides the darkest patch of glass on the whole street. This was where his fellow soldiers and friends had been the most densely grouped. He pulled his Titanium-A Combat Knife from its sheath and looked it over, ensuring that it would do what he needed it to. He then pulled his M6C SOCOM Pistol from its holster on his thigh and fired seven tightly grouped Semi-Armor Piercing Non-Explosive rounds into the glass at his feet before re-holstering it and raising his knife.

He plunged the knife downward, digging it into the ground up to the hilt. The wide blade forced the glass apart, causing it to crack and pop up around him. There were several decent sized chunks, and he took three that were just smaller than the palm of his hand, storing them deep in his pack.

Jason Smiths stood up, looking at the destroyed city around him. He slowly walked onwards towards where his Company had intended to go, leaving his knife in the ground. It would serve as a headstone, a reminder, and a semi-permanent tribute to the brave men and women that had fallen here today.


End file.
